MLS Cup 2016 sets record for most-watched title game in league history

Major League Soccer set a new record for MLS Cup television viewership on Saturday, the league announced on Tuesday.

More than 3.5 million viewers in the US and Canada tuned in to the Seattle Sounders’ victory against Toronto FC at BMO Field on Saturday, an increase of 177 percent over MLS Cup 2015, according to Nielsen Research.

Over 2 million people watched in the US, with 1,411,000 tuning in on FOX and an additional 601,000 viewing the match in Spanish on UniMás. Nearly as many people viewed the game in Canada, with 1,430,000 watching on TSN and another 92,000 viewing in French on RDS.

The total of 3.534 million viewers between the US and Canada is an all-time record for an MLS Cup match.

The match generated a 9.9 household rating in Seattle, meaning that 9.9 percent of all households with a TV set in the Seattle market watched Saturday’s match.

Overall, 4.2 million Canadians watched some part of Saturday’s match on TSN or RDS.

MLS also announced that the league set new records for postseason attendance, digital audience and social media engagement in the playoffs. An all-time high of 27,790 fans per game attended the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs and MLS Cup, while the league’s online and social media channels set MLS Cup records for largest digital audience, video consumption and social media impressions.